This post is a continuation of my Tech Review Series. You can read Parts One and Two
here and
here.
Today, I will be discussing the differences between the
Droid and
iPhone cell phones, and how they have worked for me in my daily life.
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| Apple vs. Android - Let the games begin! |
Before I go on – I know that there are many die hard fans of
either platform. I am not writing to
equivocally say one is better then the other – these are just my experiences
with these two phones, and how I have used them in everyday life.
Droid Evo Shift with Sprint Service
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| The Evo Shift with Google by Android |
I had the Evo Shift for about 2 years and I loved it. I was not a fan of the “tapping on the glass”
method of text entry, so the fact that the Evo Shift had a slide out keyboard
was the first very attractive quality that hooked me right away. The Shift had a very nice display screen, and
was easy to use. The Droid Marketplace
(now called Google Play) was easy to use, and I often found exactly what I
needed right away. I also loved the way
that my email, calendar, contacts, etc all synced with my phone easily and
effortlessly from my Google Accounts. My
Shift started off working great – it was fast and easy to use, and my favorite
feature – built in voice navigated turn by turn directions from Google
Maps. Every time I had to take a trip,
my trusty navigation unit was right there telling me where to go.
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| I do miss this... |
However, after about a year or so of use, I started to
notice some issues. First off, the sync
system that Droid uses is very slow and cumbersome – there was always some
issue with trying to sync the phone with my PC.
Most of the time, I didn’t even bother. Second, there was a real memory/
storage issue. When I bought my phone,
the salesman did say that the Evo Shift was a great entry level to mid range
smart phone, and he was not lying. The Evo Shift came with a 2 GB memory card
and even less internal storage.
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| Not. Quite. Enough. |
After about a year, I started getting low
memory/ storage warnings. Add to that,
many apps could not be transferred to the SD card, so I had to start deleting
apps to make room for the updates to the apps I wanted to keep. And oh, the updates – there were just so
many! As my phone filled up, the system
got slower and slower, until it got to the point of having to power down and
reboot. The time had come to upgrade.
Apple iPhone 4 with iOS 5 with Sprint Service
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| The iPhone 4 with iOS 5 by Apple |
I was leery about moving over to the iPhone. Many swear by it, but when it fails, I hear
it fails spectacularly. However, the
time had come – Sprint was having a great deal on iPhones, and I decided to go
for it.
I have had my iPhone for about 2 weeks, and I really do love
it, but it does take some getting used to.
The display screen is a bit smaller then my Droid, but not by much. The nice thing, though, is that my screen is
far more sensitive, so text typing on the glass is not as big of an issue as I
though it would be. I have also noted
that apps work much better on the iPhone then on the Droid. A perfect example is Instagram. I enjoyed in on the Droid, but I love it on
the iPhone (especially as the camera on the iPhone is fantastic).
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| Instagram rules on the iPhone! |
The iCloud
system is really what makes this phone awesome.
Look, as the end of the day, most phones do the same thing in one way or
the other. The iCloud, however, really
does take it to the next level. I love
being able to download a song on my iPad and then have it instantly available
on my iPhone and Mac. The same is true
with apps and documents – everything gets shared across multiple devices.
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| The iCloud is awesome - and is a real selling point for Apple products. |
My iPhone 4 is definitely faster then my
Droid Evo Shift, and it can run more apps at once without a problem. Add to that the 8 GBs of internal storage
(and no need for a separate SD card), and so far, this phone really has been
terrific.
All that being said – the iPhone is not without flaws. The first major shortcoming is its lack of on
board navigation. Really, Apple - you
can’t figure that one out? There are
apps for this (and I will discuss those later), but they are not as good as the
navigation system on the Droid phones. The
other downfall is the ongoing feud between Apple and Adobe. This nonsense has to stop – Apple has to
realize that not having Adobe Flash is hurting there phone (as a matter of fact
– that was one of my deciding factors in getting the Shift). At the same time, Adobe has to realize that
Flash takes up a tremendous amount of space, and weekly, almost daily updates
(as it feels like sometimes) is just annoying and unnecessary. They have to get this figure out.
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| Adobe Flash - Get it together guys! |
The final major downside is Apple does not
play well with Google. After syncing all
of my contacts from my Google Accounts, the showed up on my iPhone all messed
up. After downloading my contacts, I saw
multiple entries for the same individual, information in the wrong place, and
some of it just plain missing. That was
two hours of going through everything to get it all up to date. Furthermore, the iPhone contacts list does
not include entries for Facebook and Twitter with real time updates – you have
to use separate apps for that. The Droid
platform lets you tie all of those accounts together, letting you see
everything at a glance. However, the apps do work much better on the iPhone, so I guess it is just a trade off at that point.
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| Facebook and Twitter work great on the iPhone! |
So, there you go – my simple and personal reviews between
the iPhone and the Droid. I would like
to point out one other thing though – I will continue to use Sprint for as long
as they are as good as they are.
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| Sprint: The way to go for me - for now.... |
AT&T, which I have had in the past, stinks – I will never use them
again. A long time ago, I had Cingular,
(inventor of the roll over minutes) which was awesome. They had great customer service, and a
terrific product line. Then, AT&T
bought them out, and the whole thing went down hill in a matter of weeks. I actually paid the $250.00 cancellation fee;
that’s how bad they were.
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| AT&T: BOOOOOOOO! |
I have heard
Verizon service is good, but their version of the iPhone cannot multitask,
which was a problem for me.
I hope this little synopsis helps anyone toiling with the
decision of purchasing an iPhone over the Droid, or vice versa. My next post will concentrate on my favorite apps available for the iPhone. Thanks for reading!
